In another life
by WithinDreamyEyes
Summary: Hermione's life is quite a normal one. Except she's all alone in the world, a lonely girl, filling her days with work to forget about her parent's death. One day a strange blonde man with no memories of his past walks into her life and everything starts to change. (Rated M, just to make sure. Searching for a beta reader.)
1. Prologue

_I do not own any of the characters but the OCs. I'm sorry for my bad English, this is my first piece here. But please, give it a shot & leave me a review! If someone wants to beta this, that would be awesome. Thank you!_

_-WithinDreamyEyes_

PROLOGUE

A man was sitting in a local cafe early in the morning. It was quite a busy day, even in that little cafe. It was saturday and people stormed in and out, getting their coffees before going to work or wherever they were heading. That man, sitting in a place close to the window, seemed to be in no hurry at all, though. He was just looking out of the window, sometimes eyeing the other customers with no expression at all. And sipping at his coffee. Slowly.

One of the two waitresses was eyeing him from time to time, for there was something out of place about him. Still, she decided to dismiss her curiosity. She served the customers with a smile on her face and with great care.  
Time went by quickly when she was at work, like usual. It was hard work but she always managed to appear happy to work there, no matter how rude the customers were at times. Her boss and workmates appraised her about it. And of course she needed the money. That's why she never gave up on her job.  
At six o'clock her shift ended for the day and she took off her workclothes. As she walked out of the door she noticed that the man she saw in the morning had come back to the cafe. He sat on the same place as he did in the morning, almost as if he had never left. She knew better, he left at ten o'clock. Not that she had particulary taken notice, she reminded herself. For a brief moment, their eyes met. Then she left for the streets.

It was dark outside, like always on november, except for the cars and streetlights that lid the streets. The woman clutched her coat tighter so that it would keep her warm for sure. There were a few other people walking the streets with her, she noticed, as she looked around. It was quite silent out there, next to no sound at all. But then she heard one.

"Help!" Somebody shouted from a small alley. The woman felt an urge to run to the shouter's rescue, but then she came to think of the consequences. She looked around and saw no one close enough to offer a helping hand. She could get hurt. Her body tensed.

"Please, help, somebody!" She made a quick choice and ran to the small alley. Halfway there she knew she was going to regret the descision, but she had already made up her mind. She would not be a coward.  
She could see two dark figures standing. There was a big man, holding a middle-aged lady against wall. He was stealing her money from a purse and keeping her mouth shut with his other hand. The lady was trying to speak but no words came out, just mumbling. Her eyes were filled with fear and tears. But soon her eyes got larger as her rescuer came closer, but at the same time there was more fear in her eyes, fear for her rescuer also.

The rescuer felt her stomach lurch when she came near. She had no plan at all, no chance against a big man like that. But surprise was on her side, she realized, as she saw a big stone on the ground, next to her feet. She was standing a few feet away from the pair. The man hadn't noticed her yet. The woman threw the stone at his head as hard as she could. She could hear loud pounding in her head. Never before in her life had she been so as afraid as she was right now.

A loud thud. The man cried. He turned and let go of the lady. "Run, go!" The lady shouted to her rescuer. It was too late now. The man was on her, hitting her against the wall. Her head hurt again and again as he banged it against the bricks by her hair. The man had a mad gleam in his eyes and his body was too strong. She had no chance against him, no hope. The lady fled for help, but the woman knew that she propably couldn't get back in time.

She didn't want to die yet. Silently she prayed even tough she had never really believed in god. "Do you know how much that hurt, bitch?" The man shouted and started to kick her. Her vision blurred and she fell to the ground. Pain. It was all she could think about.

"If I only had my wand..." she found herself thinking. Then she almost laughed at herself but it came out as a cough of blood. What an odd thought that was. If there are gods or fairies or magic or something, for sure a thing like this would never happen, she thought.  
Everything was blurry. Her ears still worked, she could hear his kicks and her own screams. She could still feel them all. And she couldn't stop her brain from working or stop all those emotions. Maybe dying wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Then suddenly it just all stopped. She heard the man cry from pain. Then there was a sound of another man. "You are going to regret that", a conclusion, rather than thread was said with a smooth tone. Then the air was filled with beating sounds and violent shouts. A noise that comes from a knife being pulled out. The woman, lying on the ground, felt tired. She could barely make sense of the men fighting and she wasn't sure if she was going to get hurt, killed or rescued. She decided that would be fate's problem, because she couldn't do anything. Someone ran away and her fate lifted her in his arms.  
She could feel the man walking, moving somewhere. His chest was warm, so much better than the ground. She tried to open her eyes but couldn't really see anything so she just let them be closed.

"Can you hear me? Are you still conscious?" her own rescuer asked. She tried her voice. It came out as something completely alien and ridiculously weak. "Y-yes". The man seemed to curse something under his breath. Then he called the emergency number. "I am going to take you to an ambulance. Could you tell me what's your name?" The man asked.

The woman was silent for a short while as if thinking if she should tell it or not. "Hermione Granger", she finally whispered and fell silent again. "A familiar name", the man murmured. Hermione opened her mouth "May I ask... What's yours then?".

"I don't know", her rescuer answered.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Beep. Beep. Beep.

There was light. She could sense it. As Hermione opened her eyes and blinked a few times she could see again. She was in a white empty room that was lit by a bright fluorescent lamp. Hospital, she realized, after she noticed the tubes plugged into her. But why was she there?

She turned her head so that she could see out of the window. "Ouch, my neck", Hermione cursed with a creaked voice. She moved her body parts a little and noticed they were aching. As she stared into the night a question woke in her. How long had she been there? And then she rembered what had happened.

A doctor walked in to the room with a notepad and a pen in his hands. He looked at her calmly, a look filled with joy for his patient. "You have woken up, great. I knew you would be fine pretty fast". He noticed Hermione's questioning look and continued. "There hasn't been any serious damage, other than a few broken bones and a bloodloss. You have to stay here still for a few more days, though."

"A few days?" she replied. "I feel fine, just a little aching, that's all. For sure I can leave today already." The doctor didn't agree, but promised that if things go well, she could leave tomorrow. Well, maybe she could bare it for one more day. The doctor was about to leave after checking her pulse and testing a few other things, seemingly pleased with the result. Then she remembered to ask. "How long have I been here? And... have you seen the man that saved my life?"

"For two days. Your workplace and school has been informed you're here." The doctor answered. "And yes, the night we brought you here he came with us and informed us about the happenings. But we haven't seen him since". Hermione felt her heart sink a little. She would have wanted to say thank you to him. Guess she will never get the chance, she tought, closing her eyes again and letting her body rest on the shoft matress.

oOoOoOo

The sky was covered in dark clouds that friday and it was raining. With an umbrella in her hand, Hermione was walking towards her apartment, just a few hunred metres away from her workplace. Her school was also quite close so usually Hermione would just walk to work and school.

Today she hurried home quickly. She had left from the hospital just a few days ago. The memory of the saturday night still sent shivers down her spine, especially today when everything seemed to be catching up on her. She almost managed to forget the whole thing for the past week, when she was at work. Except for all the questions from the customers and her workmates about the happening and her black eye.

She didn't look at anyone in the eye on her way, just kept on walking, her eyes looking somewhere distant. Finally she was at the front door of the house that held her flat. It was a high dark green one, her flat was almost on the highest floor.

After finding her keys from her bag Hermione opened the door and walked up the stairs. She finally got into her apartment, just jumped on her couch and didn't even make the effort to put the lights on. She felt like crying. But she decided it would not do, not tonight. It was weekend, after all. She had promised to go to a bar with her school friend and talk about what had happened. Hermione didn't want to go, nor talk, but she had already promised.

There was a gentle knocking on the door. Who was that, she had no idea. Maybe Claudia was worried about her and came early? It wouldn't be quite like her, though. She was always late.

With careful steps she walked to the door. "Who's there?" Hermione asked. There was no answer for a moment.

"Who are you?" She asked once more, and decided to put her safety lock on the door, just in case. Then she slowly parted the door. There was a tall blonde man standing in front of her door. Her body filled with fear. She should just close the door, she reasoned. Still her curiosity stopped her from doing that.

"Why are you here?" she said and dared to look into his confused face, to his eyes. She noted that his eyes looked cold ice grey, they gave nothing away but coldness. His features were sharp and quite peculiar, almost aristocratic, which made him look a little arrogant. His face was cold too, it gave nothing more away than his eyes. His hair was very blonde, almost white and dripping wet just like his clothes. A black jacket and black trousers. Something any Englishman could wear. There was something strange about him, staring her with an unreadable look.

"I'm not sure." he said with a calm but a little uncomfortable voice. Then it hit her. He had the same voice as the man who had saved her! It had to be him.

"Are... are you the man that saved my life?" she questioned and realized how stupid that must have sounded. Maybe she was just mistaking.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that", he replied. Hermione didn't quite know how to reply. She wanted to thank him properly but first she wanted to know, why exactly was he at her door. "How did you get here?" Hermione asked, really wondering how he got in. She hadn't tought of seeing her saviour ever again.

"I followed you from the cafe. You never noticed me in there?" He said, lifting his eyebrows.

He was the man who sat there that saturday, Hermione realized, and wondered in her mind, why she never saw him after that day. It was a little creepy that he followed her here, even though he had saved her. For sure normal people wouldn't just sneak up on others.

"Why did you follow me here?" She asked and looked into his eyes again, trying to see past the ice. She didn't succeed. The man was silent, as if pondering if to just flee from the awkward situation or to answer. "There was something familiar about you."  
"What?" She had never seen him in her life, she was quite sure. "I don't remember ever seeing you". "I don't remember either", he said. "What do you mean?" Hermione asked, puzzled. Silence stood in the air around them, the man in the wet suit and the young woman behind the parted door.

"I don't remember anything", he said carefully. A thunder was roaring somewhere in the distant, she could hear it faintly. "Oh hell, you can't be serious", she exclaimed. He didn't burst out laughing. He was dead serious, standing there, blank, wet and lost. "Come in", Hermione said and opened the door.


End file.
